Failed Skirt-a-Palooza: Butterick 6060 but a WINNER in New Look 6301

After my top-a-palooza, I planned on making 2-3 skirts with a more summery flair. When B6060 first came out, I snatched it up, liking both the straight view with the little peplum and the pleated view.

I was so excited to get going on this and decided on classic but summer-fun navy and white colorblocking. I had a cotton twill in navy and a rayon suiting in white (with white poly pongee lining). The weights weren't compatible but the upper skirt is meant to be lined and I thought that would equalize things (newsflash: it didn't).

Also, I didn't think the upper portion looked THAT deep in the tech drawing but the photo is fairly accurate.

I didn't consider how this style would work with my fairly rectangular (when viewed front-on) figure (newsflash: it doesn't). This skirt took a long time to make. Well, to make well.

6 seams on the upper skirt plus the zipper
6 seams on the lining
Pleating the skirt...

I used tailor tacks to mark the pleat points as I knew it was imperative that they be properly marked so that the lower skirt would fit correctly to the upper. I even hand-basted the pleats in place.

Did a great job on my invisible zipper:

Hand sewed the lining to the zipper tape:

There is no facing or waistband. I used strips of interfacing in addition to stay-stitching. If I were to do it again I would add some twill tape or other support at the waist. The skirt pulls down when worn.

Because the twill appears slightly textured, I went ahead and topstitched the hem - it looks fine. 

Hard to photograph the white+navy

I finished it and was SO excited and...MEH.

My daughter told me to "take it off please".

I didn't understand how it went so wrong! LOL!!!

After trying it on a BUNCH more times, I decided it could work if it sat closer to my natural waist. But I'm holding like 4" of fabric in back! It sits way low on my hip which makes me wonder if I didn't manage to stretch out the waist despite being careful - or if the size 16/18 was just too big. (I always do a 16 front and 18 back in skirts).

I like the pleated bottom and thought MAYBE if I removed 2-3" from the height/depth of the top it could work in the future. But...sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. And there are WAY more "patterns in the sea".

In the meantime, I have my Ann Taylor Loft white eyelet/lace skirt and I ended up getting the colorful A-line skirt online. YAY! It came today and I absolutely adore it. I think I shall wear it tomorrow! :)

(size 14)

I also really appreciate the details. This is grosgrain used as a facing and zipper shield but it's SUPER soft and pliable. A quick Google search shows that cotton/rayon grosgrain ribbon is a thing! I like the way it's used in this skirt. I can see this becoming a wardrobe fave; even though it's bright and colorful.

I finished the Butterick  skirt on the 3rd and on the 4th of July found myself home alone in the morning while both kids were working. "Oh well, guess I'll sew a dress...", I said.

1) Knit - duh. Easy. Peasy.

2) Something I've made before - duh again! Ain't nobody got time for new patterns + adjustments

3) Easy to handle fabric - See #1

I was somehow drawn to NL6301, even though I said I probably wouldn't make it again. But luckily, I am smart sometimes. I thought about WHY I didn't enjoy the make as much (though I like the dress)...Ponte was not a good fabric to use with this one. It just created too much bulk in areas with pleats and ties and...bleh.

So I reached deep into the stash and came out with this lovely, thick springy poly jersey that I purchased from SR Harris way back in 2013 when I first started sewing. The colors are fun and vibrant and say SUMMER! but can easily transition into early fall. My kinda fabric!

This time, I chose the view with the full skirt. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I did have to cut the skirt out. But that was easy, just a front and back, size 16 for both.

I ALMOST ran out of fabric! I had cut my sleeves early on when I found a good spot for them between the bodice pieces.

But when I went to move them - uh oh! This fabric has a crazy wide selvedge and it's uneven on top of that! So like 1/3 of one of my sleeves was this cream selvedge. I dug around through my scraps and WHEW! Found a piece that could fit the sleeve.

In an effort to fit all the pieces on the fabric on-hand, I ended up turning my neck binding piece on the cross grain. This meant I didn't have the stretch to snug it up against the neckline so it's a little loose. But still - I LOVE THIS DRESS!!

I ended up wearing it on my birthday <3

We were moving non-stop that day so all I got was  a selfie and a cat and boy photobombed pic at the end of the day :)

The sleeves and skirt both got 5/8" double turned hems. I did not need to top-stitch the neck binding. Love. Love. Love.

New Look 6301 (In Triplicate)

Epic. Sewing. Session.

As mentioned before, my sister has found a new job after dealing with unemployment for quite awhile. While we are not close and don't talk often, I got the bug to make her a new dress for her new job. And then I had this bonus yardage of cobalt ponte and decided I'd make 2! A classic black version and a fun, sleeveless blue version.

I told her to be watching her mail and sent her the USPS tracking number. Just to show how little we talk, I had no idea she's moving at the end of the month! Good thing I got them done and in the mail first thing Monday! They showed up today :)

I went with size 12, totally guessing, putting her square in between my daughter's measurements and my own. I am smart!

This pattern is a surplice with an IMO unnecessary pleat on the right (under) bodice, two side pleats on the left bodice, pleats in the front skirt and darts in the back skirt. It has a center back seam on the back bodice, a narrow neck binding and tie belt.

Does it sound like there's too much going on? I kind of think there is. I'll start by saying the pattern is okay but unless she wants some other variation, I probably won't sew this one again.

It's one of those where it's like eh...it's not bad but meh... Know what I mean??!

**Knowing New Look, I took the liberty to remove 3/8" from the back neckline grading to nothing at the waist. I took a 3/8" tuck across the fronts.

**For myself I traced a size 14 neckline/armholes, grading out to a 16.

**I fully intended to do a swayback adjustment. I forgot!!! And dang it, it shows.

**When I first tried it on I wasn't happy with the front pleats but then when I actually wore it I realized the entire bodice is just too long. When I hiked it up a bit (like an entire inch!), the pleats fell just fine. Ah!

**Also, the bindings are too long. It is a match to the length of the front pieces. I attached the blue one as is and knew it would stand away from the body a bit.

**On the black one (a rayon/poly/lycra ponte), I had 6" of binding left over after applying light tension throughout serging.

**On the green/black one (a poly/lycra ponte), I had less leftover, around 3".

**Same with the armhole bindings on the sleeveless versions. Blue one was as-is and just matched the opening. Green/black was shortened and is still too long. It doesn't pull it in to the body.

**As per usual with Big4 patterns and ties, they are always wrong. Either too long to just tie in front but too short to actually wrap around successfully.

The blue version was first and ties were sewn as is.
On the black version I used the full size 20 length; they can wrap around the body easily.
On the green version I used the full size 20 length AND cut them with stretch. So this is my favorite. They wrap around nicely and sit snugly against the body.

Blah blah blah words...here are the pictures!!! :)

As said above, she is in the middle of a move so she wasn't photo-ready :) Hence the headless shot!

This photo was taken before the black one was hemmed. 

I traced the pattern and cut the blue one Saturday morning. By around mid afternoon the black one was to this stage. My husband walked past and said, "Wait...that's ANOTHER dress?! WOW! You made that really fast!". Yeah, the second one went super quick! 

I pressed and pinned the hems and stitched them Monday morning. Then I pressed it and wrapped them for the mail! Sent them out Monday morning and she received them today. 

People complain but I *love* the USPS! 

Why did the hems wait? Because of MINE! LOL! I traced my pattern Sunday afternoon and cut it out and serged it up. And then realized that because mine was sleeveless, the bands went in super quick with the serger and hemming was fast. I still need to twin-needle stitch the neck binding on mine. It flipped out a couple times while wearing it today.

Styled with my M6884 cardigan, tights and black boots.  Which, I read on PR today that "dresses with tights and boots look bad". Ohhhh. Interesting.

Here you can see all that excess fabric length in back. And how bulky that side seam area is. 

There's got to be a way to make that work out better?? Maybe if the seam is sewn and serged separately?? Or would that create more bulk?

At any rate, the pattern worked just fine and if she really wanted another I'd consider it. 

But for me? I think I'll stick to M6884 (here and here) and S2369 (here) for my mock wraps, thankyouverymuch.